Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile hits record as Warren Buffett dumps stocks

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Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile soared to a record $334.2bn at the end of last year, as Warren Buffett dumped stocks and raked in billions of dollars in interest from the group’s vast holdings of Treasury bills.

Omaha-based Berkshire said on Saturday that its cash position rose by $9bn in the final three months of last year, as Buffett trimmed stakes in blue-chip US stocks, including multibillion-dollar sales of shares in Citigroup and Bank of America. The group’s cash pile has almost doubled over the past year.

The sprawling conglomerate reported operating earnings of $47.4bn for 2024, up 27 per cent from 2023, led by a stronger performance by its insurance business.

The operating results exclude changes in the value of Berkshire’s $272bn stock portfolio, swings which Buffett has long dismissed as largely meaningless.

Berkshire disposed of $143bn of stocks in 2024, far surpassing the $9bn it ploughed into equities, and put much of the proceeds into short-term Treasury bills.

The group’s fourth-quarter results were released along with Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders.

“In 2024, Berkshire did better than I expected though 53 per cent of our 189 operating businesses reported a decline in earnings,” Buffett wrote to shareholders. “We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury Bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities.”